[wsfii-discuss] [OT] Hackers to become military crackers

Mon Feb 9 07:35:02 UTC 2009

The community of hackers may get compromised by this initiative from Germany, seen on /. 

Of course, it is possible that this sort of thing has been done before in democratic countries. For instance, US universities are regularly and formally funded for military research, and there is no reason to believe this does not or has not included network and data access work. 

The trouble with military work is that the validation of the word 'hostile' is not guaranteed (rather the opposite) to be publicly endorsed. It will inevitably be covered under the warm blanket of 'national security'. While one does not discount the possibility of some serendipity between the research and development of military weaponry and the common weal, it is difficult to believe that useful technologies would not develop were similar funds made available (with similar levels of accountability) in the public domain.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/c42wD2xOqnU/article.pl
"Heise.de tells us about the German Bundeswehr's idea of recruiting
hackers in order to 'penetrate, manipulate and damage hostile
networks.' (Note: The following passage has been translated from German
into English: 'The Regiment is stationed in Rheinbach, near Bonn, and
consists of several dozen graduates from Bundeswehr universities.
They're training at the moment, but the 'hackers in uniforms' are
supposed to be operational by next year. This regiment officially
belongs to the "Kommando Strategische Aufklärung" (strategic
reconnaissance) and is commanded by Brigadier General Friedrich Wilhelm
Kriesel. The Bundeswehr has not said anything to this regiment yet.'
You can find the full article in German."

The second last sentence is astonishing. It implies that Brig Gen Kreisel (shades of Brig Gen Jack D Ripper!) has the authority to initiate R&D with independent academic institutions, without informing the general staff.

Vickram
http://communicall.wordpress.com
http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com

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